Suzanne Somers: Stem Cells Re-grew My Breast

Suzanne Somers agonized over the decision to use a cutting-edge stem cell technology to reconstruct the breast she lost to cancer. When she began researching the procedure, it wasn’t being offered in the United States. Women who wanted to have stem cell breast reconstruction it performed had to travel to Asia, Germany, or the Dominican Republic.

In an exclusive video interview with Newsmax Health, Suzanne details how she was able to work with doctors at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital and federal officials to gain approval to become the first woman in America to undergo the pioneering stem cell breast reconstruction technique.

“It’s the most incredible advancement in breast cancer treatment that I am aware of,” she says.

The procedure itself is enormously complex, but Suzanne explains the key elements of the technique.

“Here’s my layman's interpretation,” she says. “They took fat from my stomach – boo hoo! – they took that fat and in a highly technical piece of machinery….whipped the stem cells out.”

By separating out the stem cells, doctors could “clean” them and identify the strongest cells, and discard the weakest ones, she says.

“So it was like the fat was just rich with those [strongest] stem cells,” Suzanne explains. “And then, again in layman’s terms, they took something that looked to me like a turkey baster and in the bottom of this breast they kept injecting, injecting, injecting this fat-and-stem-cell solution until it blew up to be the same size as the other one.”

Today, she says her new breast is very much like the one she had before her cancer.

“It’s beautiful, it’s soft, it has full feeling. It’s all me,” she notes. “And there’s no foreign object, and there’s no scar.”

Somers says she felt it was important for her to undergo the procedure not just for herself, but to help other women with breast cancer in this country.

“I am the first woman to legally regrow a breast in the United States," she says. “It took me three years to get permission … with Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, to qualify me for a clinical trial with the [Food and Drug Administration].”

She wanted to go through the complex experimental process here – securing approval from a hospital institutional review board (IRB) and the FDA – so that other women in this country can benefit from her experience.

Somers says, “I wanted it to be an American achievement by an American doctor on an American woman so hopefully my clinical trial will open up the possibility for women in this country to utilize stem cell protocols. And hopefully this will be the first option in the future. It’s more humane.”

She acknowledges that the procedure is not simple or easy, and may not be for everyone.

“Liposuction is not for sissies,” she cautions. “When they removed fat from my stomach — I’m really happy to have given them that fat — but that hurt like crazy.”

Although she extensively researched the procedure before having it done, she also acknowledges feeling anxious about it, since she was the first to undergo the stem cell breast re-growth procedure.

“I was a human guinea pig because I was the virgin operation with Dr. Joel Aronowitz,” she says.

But she says the results were worth all the effort, pain, and anxiety. “I cannot tell you what a thrill it is to look down and see myself whole again,” she says.

“I’ve had a hard time keeping my clothes on it looks so nice!”

She envisions a day when doctors can remove the cancer from a woman’s breast and immediately take fat “from whatever part of the body she wants to get rid of it” and regrow her breast using stem cells. She also believes the procedure might one day be used to replace other body parts — including limbs and heart valves.

Somers also recognizes she has a unique perspective and, as a celebrity health advocate, can bring wider attention to the issue. “I have a louder voice,” she says. “I am able to get out in the media and be on the Internet and talk about this. And when the masses want something they can make enough noise to get it to happen. And I think that’s what’s going to happen.”

Suzanne believes her positive experience is one of the first to prove the promise of stem cell treatments. The stem cell treatment she underwent six months ago has given her a natural-looking and normal-feeling breast that is made of her own tissue, she says.

“When I tell women about this, their jaws drop and they just can’t believe this is available,” she says. “This is beyond breast cancer … if you just want bigger breasts you could also do this protocol. And it probably will have a negative impact on implants in the future, because implants have a lot of problems.

Suzanne says she’s passionate about the cause of breast cancer because it strikes so many women.

“The devastating diagnosis is one thing, and then the double whammy of losing a body part can do a person in,” she says. “I am passionate about this because it can be so helpful on a psychological level, and if your emotions are positive you can heal better. But when you look down and you see nothing there and you don’t feel like a woman, it has a devastating psychological effect on you. And I think this will be very helpful.

“I just think we need to each rethink how we’re taking care of our bodies.”